Dynamic memory management

From Cppreference

C++ Standard Library
Language Utilities library Strings library Containers library Algorithms library Iterators library Numerics library Input/output library Localizations library Regular expressions library (C++11) Atomic operations library (C++11) Thread support library (C++11)
Utilities library
Dynamic memory management
Low level memory management Allocators allocator allocator_traits (C++11) allocator_arg_t (C++11) allocator_arg (C++11) uses_allocator (C++11) scoped_allocator_adaptor (C++11) Uninitialized storage uninitialized_copy uninitialized_copy_n (C++11) uninitialized_fill uninitialized_fill_n raw_storage_iterator get_temporary_buffer return_temporary_buffer Smart pointers unique_ptr (C++11) shared_ptr (C++11) weak_ptr (C++11) auto_ptr (deprecated) owner_less (C++11) enable_shared_from_this (C++11) bad_weak_ptr (C++11) default_delete (C++11) Garbage collection support declare_reachable (C++11) undeclare_reachable (C++11) declare_no_pointers (C++11) undeclare_no_pointers (C++11) pointer_safety (C++11) get_pointer_safety (C++11) Miscellaneous pointer_traits (C++11) address_of (C++11) align (C++11) C Library malloc calloc realloc free

Contents 1 Low level memory management 2 Allocators 3 Uninitialized storage 4 Smart pointers 4.1 pointer categories 4.2 helper classes 5 Garbage collector support 6 Miscellaneous 7 C library

[edit] Low level memory management

[edit] Allocators

Allocators are class templates encapsulating memory allocation strategy. This allows generic containers to decouple memory management from the data itself.

Defined in header <memory>
allocator	the default allocator (class template)
allocator_traits (C++11)	provides information about allocator types (class template)
allocator_arg_t (C++11)	tag type used to select allocator-aware constructor overloads (class)
allocator_arg (C++11)	an object of type std::allocator_arg_t used to select allocator-aware constructors (constant)
uses_allocator (C++11)	identifies allocator-aware types (class template)
Defined in header <scoped_allocator>
scoped_allocator_adaptor (C++11)	implements multi-level allocator for multi-level containers (class template)

[edit] Uninitialized storage

Several utilities are provided to create and access raw storage

Defined in header <memory>
uninitialized_copy	copies a range of objects to an uninitialized area of memory (function template)
uninitialized_copy_n (C++11)	copies a number of objects to an uninitialized area of memory (function template)
uninitialized_fill	copies an object to an uninitialized area of memory (function template)
uninitialized_fill_n	copies an object to an uninitialized area of memory (function template)
raw_storage_iterator	an iterator that allows standard algorithms to store results in uninitialized memory (class template)
get_temporary_buffer	obtains uninitialized storage (function template)
return_temporary_buffer	frees uninitialized storage (function template)

[edit] Smart pointers

Smart pointers enable automatic, exception-safe, object lifetime management.

Defined in header <memory>
pointer categories
unique_ptr (C++11)	smart pointer with unique object ownership semantics (class template)
shared_ptr (C++11)	smart pointer with shared object ownership semantics (class template)
weak_ptr (C++11)	weak reference to an object managed by std::shared_ptr (class template)
auto_ptr (deprecated)	smart pointer with strict object ownership semantics (class template)
helper classes
owner_less (C++11)	provides mixed-type owner-based ordering of shared and weak pointesr (class template)
enable_shared_from_this (C++11)	allows an object to create a shared_ptr referring to itself (class template)
bad_weak_ptr (C++11)	exception thrown when accessing a weak_ptr which refers to already destroyed object (class template)
default_delete (C++11)	default deleter for unique_ptr (class template)

[edit] Garbage collector support

Defined in header <memory>
declare_reachable (C++11)	declares that an object can not be recycled (function)
undeclare_reachable (C++11)	declares that an object can be recycled (function template)
declare_no_pointers (C++11)	declares that a memory area does not contain traceable pointers (function)
undeclare_no_pointers (C++11)	cancels the effect of std::declare_no_pointers (function)
pointer_safety (C++11)	lists pointer safety models (class)
get_pointer_safety (C++11)	returns the current pointer safety model (function)

[edit] Miscellaneous

Defined in header <memory>
pointer_traits (C++11)	provides information about pointer-like types (class template)
addressof (C++11)	obtains actual address of an object, even if the & operator is overloaded (function template)
align (C++11)	aligns a pointer in a buffer (function)

[edit] C library